Former NY Times Journalist Named Director of Reynolds Center

May 15, 2014

Micheline Maynard, a former New York Times senior business correspondent, will be the new director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Maynard will lead business journalism training efforts for the Reynolds Center, the world’s premier provider of ongoing training for business reporters and editors. The center is supported through grants from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

“The Trustees of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation have invested nearly $20 million at ASU to help advance the field of business journalism nationally,” said Reynolds Foundation President Steven Anderson. “The appointment of a professional with the national stature of Micheline Maynard to direct the Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism builds upon a tradition of leaders who preceded her. Like them, she is an award-winning journalist, author and educator. We look forward to the advancements the Center will experience under her entrepreneurial leadership.”

Maynard, who will take over her new role this summer, taught at the Cronkite School as a Reynolds Visiting Professor in Business Journalism during the spring 2014 semester. She replaces Linda Austin, an experienced newsroom leader who led the center for more than five years.

As the new director, Maynard will set the direction for the center and develop and deliver a variety of business journalism training programs for professional journalists, including webinars, workshops and conferences. She also will oversee the Reynolds Center’s new online graduate certificate in business journalism and work to extend the Reynolds brand globally.

“I'm excited to be joining the Reynolds Center team, which is already a legend for business journalism education,” Maynard said. “My goal is to help journalists everywhere understand the role money plays in every kind of story, from traditional business coverage to education, sports and politics, just to name a few areas.”

As a senior business correspondent for The New York Times, Maynard directed multimedia coverage of the automotive and airline industries. Prior to that, she ran the newspaper’s Detroit bureau, directing coverage of the auto industry and other national news stories. She was the 2009 recipient of the Nathaniel Nash Award, which recognizes outstanding business and economics coverage and collegiality by a Times staffer.

Before joining The New York Times, Maynard was Detroit bureau chief for both USA Today and Reuters News Service. She also worked as a business reporter for New York Newsday, automotive editor for United Press International, and associate editor for U.S. News & World Report, covering personal finance and serving as Midwest correspondent.

In 2010, Maynard became senior editor of a two-year Corporation for Public Broadcasting project called “Changing Gears,” directing a staff that produced multimedia coverage on the reinvention of the industrial Midwest. Last year, she launched a new crowd-funded journalism venture, “Curbing Cars: Rethinking How We Get Around,” examining why people are driving less and turning to alternative types of transportation. Her e-book, “Curbing Cars: America's Independence from the Auto Industry,” was published in April as part of Forbes Magazine's new e-book series. She also writes the “Voyages” blog on transportation and reinvention topics for Forbes.com.

Maynard is the author of four other books and is the recipient of a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award, a National Headliner Award, and a Society of American Business Editors and Writers honor for print and online coverage of the 2010 General Motors bankruptcy.

“Micki Maynard has been a leader in business journalism for some of our country’s most-respected news organizations, and she has the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that will serve the Reynolds Center well as we move forward,” said Cronkite School Dean Christopher Callahan. “I can’t think of a better person to lead the Reynolds Center in offering world-class professional training and development for journalists.”

Maynard also brings to her new role extensive experience as a teacher of business topics. She has taught at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and served as a Donald W. Reynolds Visiting Professor of Business Journalism at Central Michigan University, where she taught media entrepreneurship and business journalism. She has lectured at the Wharton School, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Indiana State University, the University of Missouri and other institutions.

Maynard earned her bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and is pursuing a master’s degree at ASU. She was a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University, a media fellow of the Japan Society, a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, and a Reynolds Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the University of Nevada-Reno.

The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation is a national philanthropic organization founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it is named. Headquartered in Las Vegas, it has committed more than $115 million nationwide through its Journalism Program.